Ryan Murphy says the Menéndez brothers should be 'sending me flowers' for all the attention they are getting

Murphy shot down Erik Menéndez's criticism of the Netflix series, claiming the brothers are "playing the victim."

Ryan Murphy is doubling down on his defense of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.

"I’ll tell you my thoughts about the Menéndez brothers," he told The Hollywood Reporter in a recent interview. "The Menéndez brothers should be sending me flowers. They haven’t had so much attention in 30 years. And it’s gotten the attention of not only this country, but all over the world. There’s sort of an outpouring of interest in their lives and in the case. I know for a fact that many people have offered to help them because of the interest of my show and what we did."

While Murphy conceded that "there is no world that we live in where the Menéndez brothers or their wives or lawyers would say, 'You know what, that was a wonderful, accurate depiction of our clients,'" he reasoned that, "That was never going to happen, and I wasn’t interested in that happening."

Monsters is a dramatic retelling of the case of Lyle Menéndez and Erik Menéndez, who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise "Kitty" Menéndez. The pair claimed during trial they killed their father out of fear of retaliation, as they were planning to expose him for subjecting them to years of sexual abuse. The prosecution argued the killings took place over the inheritance of José's estate, an argument persuasive enough to sentence them to life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Monsters has done great numbers on Netflix since its release, but has divided opinion due to the various liberties taken with the real case, including insinuations of an incestuous relationship between the brothers.

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Erik Menéndez condemned the series in a Sept. 19 statement shared by his wife Tammi on X. He wrote in part, "I believed we had moved beyond the lies and ruinous character portrayals of Lyle, creating a caricature of Lyle rooted in horrible and blatant lies rampant in the show. I can only believe they were done so on purpose."

Done on purpose by whom? Murphy himself. Menéndez continued, "It is with a heavy heart that I say, I believe Ryan Murphy cannot be this naive and inaccurate about the facts of our lives so as to do this without bad intent." He added that it's "demoralizing to know that one man with power can undermine decades of progress in shedding light on childhood trauma."

Related: Monsters star Nicholas Alexander Chavez hadn't heard of Menéndez brothers until auditioning for part of Lyle

On the point of the Menéndez story providing a platform to talk about child abuse and sexual abuse, Murphy is in agreement. He stated that he was "never that interested in the Menéndez brothers. What I was interested in was the topic of sexual abuse. I was interested in, specifically, the topic of male sexual abuse, and I wanted to talk about it. It’s something in our culture we rarely talk about. I did think it was outrageous during that [Menéndez] trial that so many men, particularly in the second trial, felt there was no such thing as male sexual abuse. That was an outrage."

Murphy said he feels "tremendously proud" that "our show gave [male victims of abuse] a way to have a conversation." But as for the Menéndez brothers themselves, Murphy feels that "they’re playing the victim card right now - 'poor, pitiful us' - which I find reprehensible and disgusting."

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Monsters stars Javier Bardem (who plays José) and Nathan Lane (who plays journalist Dominick Dunne) have also responded to Erik's criticism. "It's absolutely normal, logical and legitimate to say what you think about your own life being on a show," Bardem reasoned, though admitted he hadn't read the statement. Lane cautioned viewers to take Erik's comments "with a grain of salt" because he's "criticizing it and condemning [Monsters] without ever having seen it."

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.